973.7L63 
BljC^a 


Caliender,    James  P, 

Abraham  Lincoln,    ttie    inspired 
of   God 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 
the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

The  Inspired  of  Qod 


By 
JAMES  P.  CALLENDER 


Delivered  February  12,  1928 

Christian  Endeavor  Society 

of 

Broadway  Presbyterian  Church 

New  York  City 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://www.archive.org/details/abrahamlincolninOOcall 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


ABRAHAM     LINCOLN 
The  Inspired  of  God 


By  James  P.  Callender 


IT  IS  well  for  us  in  this  age,  when  there  seems  to  be  such 
a  growing  tendency  on  the  part  of  some  of  our  writers  and 
instructors  to  belittle  our  great  men,  and  who  seek  to  find  and 
magnify  their  seeming  inperfections  and  have  it  appear  that 
the  reason  for  their  high  position  is  more  or  less  an  accident, 
for  us  to  carefully  study  some  of  the  things  about  them  that 
make  them  the  great  and  powerful  influences  that  they  really 
are. 

President  Coolidge  has  said : 

"It  is  only  when  men  begin  to  worship  that  they  begin 
to  grow.  A  wholesome  regard  for  the  memory  of  the 
great  men  of  long  ago  is  the  best  assurance  to  a  people  of 
a  continuation  of  great  men  to  come,  who  shall  still  be  able 
to  instruct,  to  lead  and  to  inspire,  a  people  who  worship 
at  the  shrine  of  greatness,  will  themselves  be  truly  great." 

Let  us  then,  for  the  destiny  of  our  beloved  country,  depends 
on  this  growing  generation,  who  in  a  few  brief  years  will  hold 
the  reins  of  power  and  on  whose  shoulders  will  rest  the  respon- 
sibility and  in  whose  hands  will  be  placed  the  destiny  of 
America,  consider  with  due  reverence  Abraham  Lincoln  as 
inspired  by  God.  This  is  a  most  fitting  place  to  consider  this 
angle  of  his  character;  a  former  minister  of  this  Church,  the 


Rev.  Howard  Crosby,  whose  likeness  in  a  memorial  window 
adorns  this  edifice,  said: 

"I  look  upon  Abraham  Lincoln  as  a  special  instrument 
of  God  to  meet  a  fearful  crisis  in  our  country's  history." 

Lincoln,  himself,  believed,  in  God's  inspiration,  for  he  said 
to  Dr.  Robert  Browne: 

"I  am  a  full  believer  that  God  knows  what  he  wants 
a  man  to  do.  I  talk  to  God.  *  *  *  I  catch  the  fire  of  it,  the 
spirit  of  inspiration  I  see  reflected  in  the  open  faces  and 
throbbing  hearts  before  me.  This  impulse  comes  and 
goes  and  again  returns  and  seems  to  take  possession  of 
me.  The  influence,  whatever  it  is,  has  taken  effect.  It  is 
contagious.  The  people  fall  into  the  stream  and  follow 
me  in  the  inspirations,  or  what  is  beyond  my  understanding. 
This  seems  evidence  to  me,  a  weak  man,  that  God  himself 
is  leading  the  way. 

At  Newark  he  said: 

"I  am  sure,  however,  that  I  have  not  the  ability  to  do 
anything  unaided  by  God." 

At  his  farewell  at  Springfield: 

"I  now  leave,  not  knowing  when  or  whether  ever  I  may 
return,  with  a  task  before  me  greater  than  that  which 
rested  up  on  Washington.  Without  the  assistance  of  that 
Divine  Being  who  ever  attended  him,  I  cannot  succeed. 
With  that  assistance  I  cannot  fail.  Trusting  in  Him,  who 
can  go  with  me  and  remain  with  you  and  be  everywhere 
for  good,  let  us  confidently  hope  that  all  will  yet  be  well, 
to  His  care  commending  you,  as  I  hope  in  your  prayers 
you  will  commend  me,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell." 


What  are  the  evidences  we  have  of  Divine  inspiration.  What 
of  Moses?  What  of  Paul?  Moses,  attracted  no  particular 
attention  as  a  young  man,  luxuriating  about  the  court  of 
Pharoah.  He  was  no  different  from  the  rest  until  he  stood 
before  the  burning  bush.  Here  he  faced  God.  Paul,  the 
utterer  of  threats  against  Christ's  deciples,  embittered  in  his 
heart,  he  trudged  the  road  to  Damascus,  when  Lo,  a  great  light 
appeared  and  the  voice  of  God,  saying: 

"Paul,  why  persecutist  thou  me?" 

This  vision  made  Paul  a  new  man  and  he  became  the  greatest 
preacher  of  all  time. 

After  the  Divine  spark,  these  men  reached  the  heights  where 
they  illuminate  all  the  ages. 

Two  strange  occurrences  mark  the  early  life  of  Lincoln. 
As  a  lad,  on  his  first  trip  down  the  Mississippi  at  New  Orleans, 
he  first  saw  a  slave  market,  where  his  nature,  so  tender  that 
he  later  cast  himself  on  Ann  Rudlidge's  grave,  sobbing  out 
that  he  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  the  rain  falling  on  it,  was 
so  shocked  at  the  buying  and  selling  of  men  and  women,  that 
he  raised  his  hand  and  said : 

"If  ever  I  get  a  chance  to  hit  that  thing,  I  will  hit  it 
hard." 

Rather  a  high-sounding  declaration  from  a  ragged  and  un- 
known lad.  Yet,  God  permitted  that  these  very  words  should 
be  fulfilled  by  him. 

Later,  and  as  early  as  1837,  he  attended  a  meeting,  where 
Dr.  Peter  Akers,  in  discussing  those  questions  which  ultimately 
resulted  in  the  Civil  War  and  predicted  its  coming,  said :  "Who 
can  tell  but  that  the  man  who  shall  lead  us  through  this  strife 
may  be  standing  in  this  presence?"     And  Lincoln,  the  boy  of 

7 


23,  said  to  his  friends:  "Gentlemen  you  may  be  surprised  and 
think  it  strange,  but  when  the  preacher  was  describing  the 
Civil  War  I  distinctly  saw  myself,  as  in  second  sight,  bearing 
an  important  part  in  that  strife."  Next  day  his  law  partner, 
Herndon,  found  him  thoughtful,  careworn  and  haggard  and 
asked  him  what  was  the  matter,  to  which  Lincoln  recited  what 
had  occurred  the  day  before,  and  said: 

"I  am  utterly  unable  to  shake  myself  free  from  the 
conviction  that  I  shall  be  involved  in  that  terrible  war." 

Those  words  he  heard  seemed  to  be  meant  for  him  and  no 
one  else.    Was  God  then  preparing  him  for  his  task? 

Lincoln  became  President  at  a  time  when  the  Civil  War  had 
in  reality  started.  In  February  before  his  inauguration,  the 
senators  and  congressmen  from  the  South  had  resigned  their 
seats.  The  first  Confederate  Congress  had  been  formed, 
secession  was  an  actuality. 

This  was  the  most  perilous  and  critical  period  in  our  national 
history  and  no  one  but  a  master  could  cope  with  it. 

To  him  the  question  of  secession  was  abhorrent..  To  him 
it  was  the  paramount  question.     In  his  first  inaugural,  he  said : 

"You  have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy  the 
Government,  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to 
preserve,  protect  and  defend  it." 

The  freeing  of  slaves  did  not  come  until  1863,  at  which  time 
he  said  to  his  Cabinet :  "I  made  a  covenant  with  God  that  if  the 
Battle  of  Antietam  resulted  in  victory  I  would  then  launch  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation,"  and  in  1862  he  wrote  to  Greeley: 

"If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave 
I  would  do  it,  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the 

8 


slaves  I  would  do  it;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing 
some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also  do  that." 

His  attitude  toward  the  south  was  with  malice  toward  none, 
with  charity  to  all.  He  was  ever  ready  to  restore  the  Union 
on  terms  of  equality. 

The  God-like  virtue  of  forgiveness  was  with  him  an  out- 
standing quality. 

When  Lee's  sons  were  captured,  at  a  time  when  the  threat 
was  made  at  Richmond  to  hang  certain  Union  officers  held 
captive  and  Stanton  was  clamoring  in  that  event  for  the 
execution  of  Lee's  sons,  without  awaiting  the  event,  Lincoln 
said: 

"I  cannot  help  it  if  a  crime  be  committed  in  Richmond," 
but  he  took  down  his  Bible  and  read  to  Stanton:  "Vengeance 
is  mine,  saith  the  Lord."  Turning  his  back  he  sent  this 
telegram : 

"Release  the  sons  of  Robert  E.  Lee  and  restore  them 
to  their  father." 

His  constant  exercise  of  the  pardoning  power  drove  Stanton 
to  fury.  This  did  not  concern  Lincoln.  After  a  hard  day 
he  was  relieved  by  restoring  some  poor  boy  to  his  family. 

Rested  he  was,  closer  to  God  he  became,  after  signing  the 
paper  which  restored  to  life  he  who  but  for  that  must  have  died. 
What  if  his  generals  swore.  What  did  they  know  of  the  God- 
given  rest  to  a  troubled  soul,  which  following  such  an  act? 

If  ever  man  smitten  on  one  cheek  turned  the  other;  if  ever 
man  forgave,  it  was  Lincoln. 

To  whom  Seward  wrote  in  effect  that  the  Government  had 
no  policy  and  suggested  that  he,  Seward,  assume  the  helm  of 
state,  and  to  whom  Lincoln,  without  malice  on  the  same  day, 

9 


wrote  his  great  reply,  which  forever  showed  Seward  who  the 
master  was. 

It  was  Lincoln,  who  had  been  selected  with  Stanton  to  try 
an  important  case  and  who  Stanton  had  scornfully  pushed  aside 
and  forced  out  from  his  part  in  the  litigation,  who  was  rewarded 
by  a  cabinet  post  and  who  wrote  Buchanan  contemptuous  let- 
ters regarding  Lincoln  and  his  ability,  but  who  in  the  next 
few  years  became  the  supporter  and  worshipper  of  Lincoln,  on 
whose  death  Stanton  said  he  now  belongs  to  the  ages,  and  who 
described  him  as  the  greatest  ruler  mankind  had  ever  had. 

It  was  the  Lincoln  to  whom  Chase  was  forever  tendering  his 
resignation  and  who  openly  and  actively  plotted  to  suceed  Lin- 
coln as  his  party  nominee  in  1864,  who  Lincoln  rewarded  with 
the  Chief  Justiceship  of  the  United  States. 

It  was  the  Lincoln,  who  when  General  Hooker  said  that 
what  the  country  needed  was  a  military  and  civil  dictator,  had 
the  magnanimity  in  placing  Hooker  in  command  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  to  write  General  Hooker :  "Only  those  generals 
who  gain  success  can  set  up  dictatorship.  What  I  now  ask  of 
you  is  a  military  success  and  I  will  risk  the  dictatorship. 

"He  whom  God  loveth,  he  chasteneth." 

In  those  dark  days  of  the  Civil  War  he  stood  alone  with 
God.  At  times  it  seemed  as  though  God  had  even  turned  away 
his  face.  His  generals  were  losing  battles.  His  generals  were 
failing  to  obey  and  disregarding  his  dispatches  and  orders, 
failing  to  follow  up  even  their  victories  as  he  directed  they 
should.  Members  of  his  cabinet  at  the  commencement  were  his 
open  critics. 

Defied  by  the  Governor  of  New  York,  a  large  part  of  the 
north  opposing  from  time  to  time  his  policies.  Greeley,  the 
rabid  abolitionist  ready  for  peace  and  disunion ;  McClelland 
contesting  for  the  presidency ;  Valandingham  conspired  against 
him,  his  own  household  being  suspected  of  furnishing  infor- 

10 


mation  to  the  enemy ;  spending  one  of  his  nights  partly  at  a  ball 
given  to  keep  up  the  spirits  of  the  north,  and  partly  at  the 
bedside  of  his  dying  child,  surely  he  trod  his  winepress  alone; 
his  gentle  kindly  face  was  deeply  furrowed  with  the  lines  of 
care,  yes  he  was  "a  man  of  sorrow,  and  acquainted  with  grief," 
what  wonder  is  it  that  Frank  Carpenter,  his  portrait  painter, 
said  of  him. 

"His  was  the  saddest  face  I  have  ever  known.  There 
were  times  I  could  not  look  at  him  without  shedding  tears." 

For  him  God  indeed  had  a  purpose. 

Lincoln  one  day  took  down  his  Bible  and  read  to  Father 
Chiniquy : 

"And  I  besought  the  Lord  at  that  time,  saying  ...  I 
pray  thee,  let  me  go  over  and  see  the  good  land  that  is 
beyond  Jordan,  that  goodly  mountain,  and  Lebanon.  But 
the  Lord  was  wroth  with  me  for  your  sakes  and  would 
not  hear  me;  and  the  Lord  said  unto  me,  Let  it  suffice 
thee;  speak  no  more  unto  me  of  this  matter.  Get  thee  up 
into  the  top  of  Pisgah,  and  lift  up  thine  eyes  westward 
and  northward,  and  southward,  and  eastward,  and  behold 
it  with  thine  eyes ;  for  thou  shalt  not  go  over  this  Jordan." 

After  the  President  had  read  these  words,  with  great  solemn- 
ity, he  added: 

"My  dear  Father  Chiniquy,  let  me  tell  you  that  I  have 
read  these  strange  and  beautiful  phrases  several  times  these 
last  five  or  six  weeks.  The  more  I  read  them  the  more 
it  seems  to  me  that  God  has  written  them  for  me  as  well 
as  for  Moses.  Has  he  not  taken  me  from  my  poor  log 
cabin  by  the  hand,  as  he  did  Moses  in  the  reeds  of  the 
Nile,  put  me  at  the  head  of  the  greatest  and  most  blessed  of 
modern  nations,  just  as  he  put  that  prophet  at  the  head 
of  the  most  blessed  nation  of   ancient  times?     Has  not 

11 


UBRarv 


UN,VF-*S,TY  0F 


God  granted  me  the  privilege,  which  was  not  granted  to 
any  living  man,  when  I  broke  the  fetters  of  4,000,000  of 
men  and  made  them  free?  Has  not  our  God  given  me  the 
most  glorious  victories  over  our  enemies?  Are  not  the 
armies  of  the  Confederacy  so  reduced  to  a  handful  of 
men  when  compared  to  what  they  were  two  years  ago,  that 
the  day  is  fast  approaching  when  they  will  have  to 
surrender  ? 

"Now  I  see  the  end  of  this  terrible  conflict  with  the 
same  joy  as  Moses,  when,  at  the  end  of  his  forty  years  in 
the  wilderness ;  and  I  pray  my  God  to  grant  me  to  see  the 
days  of  peace  and  untold  prosperity,  which  will  follow 
this  cryel  war,  as  Moses  asked  God  to  let  him  see  the 
other  side  of  Jordan  and  enter  the  promised  land.  But, 
do  you  know,  I  hear  in  my  soul  the  voice  of  God  giving 
me  the  rebuke  which  was  given  Moses  ?  Yes ;  every  time 
that  my  soul  goes  to  God  to  ask  the  favor  of  seeing  the 
other  side  of  Jordan,  and  the  fruits  of  that  peace,  for 
which  I  am  Jonging  with  such  an  unspeakable  desire,  do 
you  know  that  there  is  a  still  but  solemn  voice  which  tells 
me  that  I  will  be  among  the  dead  when  the  Nation,  which 
God  granted  me  to  lead  through  those  awful  trials,  will 
cross  the  Jordan,  and  dwell  in  that  land  of  promise,  where 
peace,  industry,  happiness  and  liberty  will  make  everyone 
happy,  and  why  so?  Because  He  has  already  given  me 
favors  which  He  never  gave,  I  dare  say,  to  any  man  in 
these  latter  days. 

"Why  did  God  Almighty  refuse  to  Moses  the  favor  of 
crossing  the  Jordan  and  entering  the  promised  land?  It 
was  on  account  of  his  own  nation's  sins.  That  law  of 
divine  retribution  and  justice,  by  which  one  must  suffer 
for  another,  is  surely  a  terrible  mystery.  But  it  is  a  fact 
which  no  man  who  has  any  intelligence  and  knowledge 

12 


can  deny.  Moses,  who  knew  the  law,  though  he  probably 
did  not  understand  it  better  than  we  do,  calmly  says  to  his 
people,  'God  was  wroth  with  me  for  your  sakes.'  But 
though  we  do  not  understand  that  mysterious  and  terrible 
law,  we  find  it  written  in  letters  of  tears  and  blood  wherever 
we  go.  We  do  not  read  a  single  page  of  history  without 
finding  undeniable  traces  of  its  existence  .  .  . 

"When  I  look  on  Moses,  alone,  silently  dying  on  Mount 
Pisgah,  I  see  that  law  in  one  of  the  most  sublime  human 
manifestations,  and  I  am  filled  with  admiration  and  awe 

.  .  .  My  God  alone  knows  what  I  have  already  suffered 
for  my  dear  country's  sake.  But  my  fear  is  that  the 
justice  of  God  is  not  yet  paid.  When  I  look  upon  the 
rivers  of  tears  and  blood  drawn  by  the  lashes  of  the 
merciless  masters  from  the  veins  of  the  very  heart  of  those 
millions  of  defenseless  slaves  these  200  years ;  when  I 
remember  the  agonies,  the  cries,  the  unspeakable  tortures 
of  those  unfortunate  people  to  which  I  have,  to  some 
extent,  connived  with  so  many  others,  a  part  of  my  life. 
I  fear  that  we  are  still  far  from  the  complete  expiation. 
For  the  judgments  of  God  are  true  and  righteous. 

"It  seems  to  me  that  the  Lord  wants  today,  as  he  wanted 
in  the  day  of  Moses,  another  victim — a  victim  He  has 
Himself  chosen,  anointed,  and  prepared  for  the  sacrifice 
by  raising  it  above  the  rest  of  His  people.  I  cannot  conceal 
from  you  that  my  impression  is  that  I  am  that  victim.  *  *  *" 

Preceding  great  events,  Lincoln  dreamt  a  dream,  it  was 
always  the  same,  he  seemed  to  be  on  the  water  in  some  singular 
indescribable  vessel  moving  with  great  rapidity  towards  an 
indefinite  shore.  He  had  this  dream  preceding  Sumpter,  Bull 
Run,  Antietam,  Gettysburg,  Stone  River,  Vicksburg. 

"I  had  that  dream  last  night,"  he  told  Grant  and  Gideon  Wells 

13 


on  April  14th,  1865.     Within  a  few  hours  he  had  crossed  that 
indefinite  shore,  he  had  become  immortal. 

How  can  we  account  for  these  evidences.  How  can  we 
account  for  his  mastery  of  prose. 

His  second  inaugural  is  a  master's  piece  of  inspired  writing. 
He  felt  that  the  war  was  God's  punishment  to  man  for  con- 
tinuing slavery,  not  to  the  South  alone  but  to  the  North.  To 
him  the  whole  Government  had  been  a  party  to  it  in  condoning 
its  existence.  The  punishment,  like  the  rain,  must  fall  equally 
on  the  just  and  unjust.  He  shows  his  great  feeling  of  mercy 
and  purpose  to  end  the  thing  in  justice  and  unity,  when  he  then 
said: 

"The  Almighty  has  his  own  purpose.  Woe  unto  the 
world  because  of  offenses!  For  it  must  needs  be  that 
offenses  come  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  offense 
cometh."  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery  is 
one  of  those  offenses,  which  in  the  Providence  of  God 
must  needs  come,  but  which  having  continued  through  his 
appointed  time,  he  now  wills  to  remove,  and  that  he  gives 
to  both  the  North  and  South  this  terrible  war  as  the  woe 
due  to  those  by  whom  the  offense  comes,  shall  we  disarm 
therein  any  departure  from  those  divine  attributes  which 
he  believes  in  a  living  God,  always  ascribable  to  him. 
Fondly  do  we  hope — fervently  do  we  pray  that  this  mighty 
scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet  if  God  wills 
that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's 
250  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk  and  until  every 
drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another 
drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  3,000  years  ago,  so 
still  it  must  be  said  'The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true 
and  righteous  altogether.' 

"With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with 
firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let 

14 


us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in,  to  bind  up  the 
nation's  wounds,  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the 
battle  and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphan,  to  do  all  which 
may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among 
ourselves  and  with  all  nations." 

His  Gettysburg  address  is  the  most  perfect  example  of  prose 
in  the  English  language  and  hangs,  as  such,  on  the  walls  of 
Oxford  University,  the  College  of  Gladstone,  who  was  born 
in  the  same  year  as  was  Lincoln.  This  short  address  was 
delivered  after  Everett's  two  hour  effort ;  the  accomplished  and 
world  famous  scholar  Everett,  the  polished  orator  of  the  day, 
beside  whom  Lincoln  thought  what  he  himself  might  say  would 
be  of  no  moment ;  we  all  know  what  Lincoln  said  then,  but 
who  of  us  has  ever  read  a  word  of  Everett's  speech? 

How  then  did  this  man,  born  in  poverty,  raised  in  want, 
helping  at  the  age  of  nine  to  fashion  the  coffin  for  his  dead 
mother,  accustomed  to  hardship  and  trial,  with  no  schooling, 
as  we  know  it,  surpass  in  heart  and  mind,  in  intellectual  attain- 
ment, in  ability  to  handle  men,  in  the  attributes  of  God-like 
forgiveness,  mercy,  and  in  foresight,  all  men  of  his  time,  all 
those  who  had  the  wealth,  the  power,  the  education  and  the 
opportunity  which  he  so  sadly  lacked,  except  he  was  the  chosen 
of  God?    His  period  in  our  history  is  past. 

"Great  captains  with  their  guns  and  drums 
Disturb  our  judgment  for  the  hour, 
But  at  last  silence  comes; 
These  all  are  gone  and  standing  like  a  tower 
Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame, 
The  kindly,  earnest,  brave  foreseeing  man, 
Sagacious,  patient,  dreading  praise,  not  blame, 
New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  American." 

Our  country  has  since  been  reconsolidated  by  two  wars  on 

15 


whose  battlefields  have  flowed  the  blood  of  our  sons  from  every 
corner  of  this  republic. 

Fifty  years  after,  the  Gettysburg  Battle  was  re-enacted.  The 
old  men  in  Blue  and  Gray.  The  rebel  yell  once  more  burst 
from  the  thin  old  gray  ranks  as  Pickett's  men  charged  the  ridge 
with  flags  and  swords  and  guns.  Behind  the  wall  with  bayonet 
fixed  were  those  old  men  in  Blue,  who  arose  to  meet  the  friend, 
no  clash  of  steel  was  heard,  but  with  arms  entwined,  with  tears 
wetting  those  brave  old  cheeks,  they  exchanged  their  coats  and 
hats  and  recited  it  all  over  again  in  loving  friendship. 

Where  but  in  our  beloved  country  could  such  a  scene  take 
place,  but  Lincoln  knew  it  all.  In  his  first  inaugural  he  said 
like  what  now  seems  a  benediction : 

"I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies  but  friends. 
We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have 
strained  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  affection.  The 
mystic  chords  of  memory  stretching  from  every  battlefield 
and  patriot's  grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearthstone 
all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the 
Union  when  again  touched  as  surely  they  will  be  by  the 
better  angles  of  our  nation." 

To  no  state,  to  no  section  belong  Lincoln  or  Lee  or  Grant 
or  Stonewall  Jackson  or  Washington  or  Pershing,  our  heroes 
glorious  and  immortal,  and  every  battlefield  and  every  pioneer 
skirmish  from  the  founding  of  this  country  throughout  its 
history,  belong  to  us  all;  they  are  yours;  they  are  mine  in 
ownership  and  possession;  they  are  our  common  heritage,  we 
are  the  trustees  and  the  guardians  of  this  heritage.  Let  us 
study  the  glorious  lives  of  our  great  men,  catch  the  fire  of  their 
inspirations  and  rededicate  ourselves  to  patriotism  for  our 
beloved  country,  that  this  republic  may  forever  stand  for  the 
freedom,  the  liberty  and  the  instrumentality  of  great  moral 
purpose  for  all  mankind. 

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ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  THE  INsWeo  OF  GOD.  NY 


12  031798157 


